iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 13/04/2025

Interesting. That is a new term to me.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 09/12/2024

It’s a Heatherwick kind of day.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 08/12/2024

Our dreams matter because they shape reality—and not just our reality, but that of everyone around us.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 08/12/2024

Another great guest lecture in MicroPs this week, this time from FPGA and digital design engineer Adam Taylor. Adam shared his journey with the class, highlighting a number of the interesting projects he's worked on.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🔴 A physics simulation with colliding pixels that move around based on how you tilt the LED matrix It drives a 64x64 LED display with the FPGA and uses the MCU to interface with accelerometers.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🎵 A system to help you correct your pitch when singing. It samples an audio signal and uses the digital signal processing capabilities on the MCU to process the audio wave and determine the frequency.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

♟️ A smart chess board that interfaces with magnetic pieces and shows you the available moves when you pick up a piece.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🖥️ An image processing system that implements an edge detection algorithm on an FPGA and outputs the results on a VGA display.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

💪 A hands-free arm wrestling game that uses electrodes to sense the tension in your flexed muscles and then displays the results on an LCD display.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🐀 A 3d-printed model of Remy from Ratatouille that you can control by moving your arms. The team uses IMUs to sense the angle of your arms and then moves Remy's accordingly.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🔦 A light controller for the DMX interface, commonly used for stage lighting. They used a bunch of sliders to control the different parameters.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

💿 A custom DJ deck which streams data from an audio analog-to-digital convertor using the I2S protocol on an FPGA and then uses the on-board MCU digital-to-analog convertor to output it to speakers with the ability to digitally filter the signal.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🏋️ A system to sense your posture and help you improve your squatting form in the gym. It uses IMUs to estimate the angles of various parts of your body and nudge you in the right direction.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🖌️ Digital art drawing on a VGA display. The MCU takes in inputs and sends the information over to the FPGA which renders pixels on the display.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

It's MicroPs Demo Day (aka one of my favorite days of the academic year). At the end of the fall semester, each of the students in my embedded systems class (#E155) at @harveymudd.bsky.social gets to show off their end-of-semester projects. Here's what they cooked up this year: 🧵

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

♟️ A smart chess board that interfaces with magnetic pieces and shows you the available moves when you pick up a piece.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🖥️ An image processing system that implements an edge detection algorithm on an FPGA and outputs the results on a VGA display.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

💪 A hands-free arm wrestling game that uses electrodes to sense the tension in your flexed muscles and then displays the results on an LCD display.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🐀 A 3d-printed model of Remy from Ratatouille that you can control by moving your arms. The team uses IMUs to sense the angle of your arms and then moves Remy's accordingly.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🔦 A light controller for the DMX interface, commonly used for stage lighting. They used a bunch of sliders to control the different parameters.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🏋️ A system to sense your posture and help you improve your squatting form in the gym. It uses IMUs to estimate the angles of various parts of your body and nudge you in the right direction.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

🖌️ Digital art drawing on a VGA display. The MCU takes in inputs and sends the information over to the FPGA which renders pixels on the display.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 06/12/2024

Had an amazing guest lecture from Ben Chelf and John Boiles over at Sol Reader today in my embedded systems class. They gave the students a live teardown with a step-by-step discussion of component selection, the firmware development process, and the challenges from going from prototype to product.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 05/12/2024

A new addition to my Christmas list: Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment. Looks amazing!

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 04/12/2024

I know I just posted one of these a week or two ago, but the sky looks amazing again tonight at @harveymudd.bsky.social.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 02/12/2024

Canadian physicist and Ursula Franklin wrote many years ago about how technology shapes the way we work. In her discussion of prescriptive vs. holistic technologies, she channeled what Albert Borgmann would later articulate in his device paradigm: technology serves to commoditize and optimize.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 01/12/2024

Accept the invitation to take action.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 27/11/2024

Thanksgiving Eve Dutch baby!

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 26/11/2024

You should add @austinkleon.bsky.social gratitude zines to your Thanksgiving traditions. It’s become an annual ritual for me and I always find it to be a joy-filled activity. Doing them in class with my students today!

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 26/11/2024

Tomorrow’s post: reflections on Thanksgiving traditions new and old. One of the newer ones is an annual gratitude zine courtesy of the one and only @austinkleon.bsky.social. You should do one too! #gratitudezine open.substack.com/pub/joshbrak...

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 24/11/2024

One of tonight’s pies.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 23/11/2024

Very much want to teach a class like this seminar from @mitmedialab.bsky.social at @harveymudd.bsky.social.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 17/10/2024

Looking forward to talking with @emilymbender.bsky.social at @harveymudd.bsky.social next month for our final talk in this fall's Nelson Lecture Series. Link to register (virtual option available!) is here: forms.gle/BFmNZRodJKWe....

“Don't Try to Get Answers From a Stochastic Parrot”

From major search engine companies providing “AI overviews” and chatbot interfaces, to the promise of “AI tutors,” to municipalities and organizations providing chatbots as interfaces to rules and regulations, it seems like large language model-driven chatbots are the future of information access. However, Bender argues that this technology does not fit the task: Not only is it unreliable, even if it was reliable, it can't support the sense making that is integral to information literacy.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 17/10/2024

The connection between engineering and magic faded. Now it’s back. The latest from @himself.bsky.social on the Dario Amodei manifesto is a must read. Many smart critiques and yet written with a generous spirit and tone. open.substack.com/pub/programm...

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 25/09/2024

So excited to have the chance to talk more about these ideas and more with @emilymbender.bsky.social in November as part of the Nelson Lecture Series at HMC!

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 16/09/2024

Thankful for the opportunity to reflect on the way that generosity has played a role in my story in the fall issue of the Center for Social Concerns' magazine. We all experience the generosity of others. Our response should be to extend it to those around us. socialconcerns.nd.edu/virtues/maga...

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 30/08/2024

The radical contradiction between technical perfection and human development.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 27/08/2024

The right questions may be more important than anything else.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 25/08/2024

Rob Nelson telling it like it is in today’s post. prototypingmindset.org/ailogblog/th...

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 25/08/2024

John Naughton makes a case in the @guardian today that there is hope for education in the age of AI. We need to help students focus on process over product. www.theguardian.com/...

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 24/08/2024

Gotta love a creative sundial. There’s a lesson here about art and making technology beautiful.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 24/08/2024

Elton Trueblood is one of my best new voices I've invited to the table of my mind this year.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 25/06/2024

We gave my four-year-old a pedal bike for Christmas this year. Watching him motoring around in our cul-de-sac ten minutes after hopping on for the first time made me a scoot bike believer. But the strategy that makes scoot bikes effective applies to more than learning to bike.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 16/01/2024

After reading Mustafa Suleyman's book, I've been thinking a lot about containment. While we need to think about the containment of technology at a society-wide level, we need to start with ourselves. How? Reveal, Rely, Reflect, Respect, and Relationship. joshbrake.substack.com/p/contain-te...

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 01/01/2024

Love the floats in the Rose Parade, but hard to beat the B-2 stealth bomber flyover. So cool.

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 01/01/2024

As the saying goes: where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The story of Juul is about a lot more than electronic cigarettes. It’s about technology and the unintended consequences embedded within it. Full post hitting inboxes tomorrow morning at 4:30 am PT! open.substack.com/pub/joshbrak...

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Josh Brake @joshbrake.com · 01/01/2024

Feeling excited for my first post of 2024 about Juul and what its story should teach engineers and designers about the responsibility we have to consider the unintended impacts of our work. Hitting inboxes Tuesday morning! joshbrake.substack.com

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